Theoretical study of inner-shell electron-impact excitation of highly charged ions: Alignment and angular distribution of electron emission

Abstract

The influence of the Breit interaction, typically appears as a relativistic correction to the Coulomb repulsion acting among the electrons, on the alignment (i.e. the population of the magnetic sublevels) and the angular distribution of electron emission from the excited state have been investigated systematically. Detailed calculations have been carried out for the electron-impact excitation cross sections from the ground state to the individual magnetic sublevels of highly charged beryllium-like ions by using a fully relativistic distorted-wave (RDW) method. A remarkable change in the alignment and the electron angular distribution due to the Breit interaction is found, especially for the cases with high-energetic incident electron and high-Z target ions.